Selkie109

Todd’s face in panel 6 is close to the face I made the first time I saw my dog kill a possum. I call it the “Oh dear sweet lord, my baby just killed” face.

Next week’s shorts should be interesting. I want to depart from Todd and Selkie, very briefly (promise!), to visit the side cast before we delve into the next long story. I’m gonna kick these off by introducing Todd and Selkie’s neighbors. 😀

And before I go… Fan Art update! 😀 Courtesy of Anemone:
And a close up:

And this next one is from Jenny:
Jenny sent two versions of this drawing, here is the second!

Hahaha! She just looks so CUTE and HAPPY while sucking out the fishy eyeballs then eating it (mostly) whole.
And that poor little Betta fish. That look of OHDEARGODNOTME, then a panel or two later it’s back to mellow swimmy swimmy. short term memory a GOOD thing for this poor fishy.

I’m kind of jumping back and forth between UTTER HORROR and adorableness with this comic page. That aside, Selkie’s adorableness has been tempting me lately. I think a plushe-doll may be in order, once school ends for me.

You may! I took a trip with my family to the Wisconsin Dells very early on in the strip’s creation (like around two months before the comic went live), and driving through the area I saw a LOT of stores and roadside huts that specialized in sausages and cheeses. I had Selkie on the brain because I had just started drawing the strips and the characters were all running through my head like wildfire (they still are, in fact. XD). I remember looking at all the sausage and cheese huts and thinking, “Man, Wisconsin would be a great place to live if you were a carnivore”. Thus, I decided to set my fictitious city in Wisconsin.

This reminds me… many sausages (the cheap ones) may have some flour in them, as well as other non-meat things… will those cause Selkie stomach ache, or is Todd just having to buy the more expensive 100% meat ones? *personally not a friend of carnivore’s sausages – meat as meat and sausages as sausages*

Hehe, I love going to the Wisconsin Dells! I personally live only about an hours drive away so usually every year we go chill at the Kalahari Resort for a few days, it’s a great time! Wisconsin really does have good meat hehe, I personally work at Wal-Mart here in town as a Meat Associate so if you ever have any Meat Related questions just ask! Hehehe, So…Does that mean Sir Dave lives near Wisconsin? Can I please become your stalker?

This is another chuckler, but yes, the fact that Todd so eloquently points out the horror (to us) of eating something still alive (which may come perfectly natural to Selkie’s people) really drives an interesting and pointed wedge and I wonder if this was another of his “Why didn’t I realize that??” moments LOL

I only just now noticed panel 3 with the goldfish’s eyeless head… creepy/horrible and at the same time rather cute. XD

Besides, Selkie’s eating the fish alive is as much a mercy-killing as it would be if they first crushed the thing’s skull with something. And if they did kill the fish by hitting its head, chances are the eyes would be damaged, and they’re Selkie’s favourite.

And the betta’s reaction to the falling fish tail reminds me of the scene in Disney movie of the Little Mermaid, when that crab, Sebastian, accidentally wanders into the kitchen and sees fish being prepared for dinner. 😛

And for a moment of fridge logic… why did they buy live goldfish for eating if she didn’t want to eat them live? You could get bigger, more filling fish at a fishmarket. Hell, you could even place an order for fish eyes.

Why do I suddely see Selkie sitting in the couch, watching Sue and Kathryn with a bowl of fish? …and fending off the cat.

This could also lead to some hilariously horrific*…horrifically hilarious?) misunderstandings.

My internal over-thinking-things reasoning is that Selkie saw the tanks of feeder goldfish while they were choosing the betta, and had a similar reaction to a human kid that passes the rows of bubblegum and candy in the cashier lanes. Todd ran with it because he assumed there would be some sort of cooking or at least microwaving.

Also, Todd probebly shouldn’t let selkie eat raw fish again. Fish should be cooked well because they tend to be filled with some very nasty parasites. Selkie’s race “could” be better suited for raw fish meat, but seeing as her anatomy is unknown they shouldn’t take the risk.

Well, for starters sushi fish (especially wild-caught) usually comes from much more sanitary situations than feeder fish. It was typical to have to clean the tanks and pick out dead feeder fish (and other animals) on a daily basis, because they are so overcrowded.

Because most fish used for sushi is ocean/salt water fish, which do not suffer from the same parasites as freshwater fish. The exception is salmon, which is generally contaminated with parasites and must be deep-frozen first if it is to be served raw.

However, a carnivorous species like Selkie’s probably has defenses against such things, much like dogs and cats are able to eat things like raw pork and ground beef that would be potentially deadly to humans.

Salmon is parasite-infected only if it’s caught in fresh waters. If caught in the sea, before they enter rivers to breed, it’s just as safe as any other salt-water fish. Of course if you’re talking about fish reared by humans for eating, things may be different.

Sushi fish is most often some species of tuna. Tuna actually has “red meat” as far as fish flesh can resemble mammalian flesh, and they’re more or less warm-blooded, which is pretty good for a fish. 😀

That’s for a human, and as a human that recently ate bad fish, it’s a bitch to deal with. Selkie on the other hand is an aquatic species that’s used to eating raw fish since you can’t cook underwater. She probably has an immunity to the parasites.

He may not know all the details of Selkie’s physiology, but he has learned that she is an obligate carnivore, and most carnivores have defenses against common parasites/bacteria in raw flesh. Not to say that she’s necessarily immune to anything she might encounter, but these goldfish that were meant to be fed to other fish should be safe for her.

Cats are obligate carnivores as well, but they DO get internal parasites from fresh-water fish. Just because they can survive/live with those parasites doesn’t mean you shouldn’t de-worm your pet cat. Likewise humans can survive with a whole host of internal parasites, but if you knew you had worms, wouldn’t you want to get rid of them?

Heh, that would be an interesting conversation, Todd trying to convey his ethics about “live food”. I would think that to Selkie, the squirming / struggling of prey makes it actually taste better; most predators have similar reactions.

One thing that might convince her is the social aspect: most people are going to have reactions like Todd’s to eating real goldfish out of a bag. Most adults, I should say. With kids about Selkie’s age, you’d probably get a higher proportion of “Cool!”

hahaha, this comic is just too cute. I know I should be like, EEk! because of selkie eating the fish, but she’s so oblivious, and todd & the beta’s reactions are just amazing. I wonder if the beta is going to be the obligatory animal of the strip? That’d be amazing!

I was hoping for Dave to reply on the whole “before they outlawed it” comment, in the past year.

I live in MI, with Lake Superior, only 8 miles to the east and 11 miles to the west (look up MTU.edu). We eat Fish out of the lake regularly, as we are right between the MI-3 and MI-4 regions of Lake Superior.

If Todd, and Theo were to take Selkie three weeks from now [June 9 & 10] they can fish all weekend for free (no license need/”Free Fishing Weekend”)

I’m curious as to how Selkie is able to digest milk products– I’m pretty sure there are no know obligate carnivores that can digest milk as adults, and even among omnivores (humans and pigs, to be specific) milk is only digestible in adult members if they have been drinking it consistently since infancy (according to Wikipedia, take that as you may).
So… sea cows?

As an adult specimen of human species that can digest milk sugar (also known as lactose)… Most people of Nordic origin (the percentage is something like 83% in Finland) can digest lactose normally, without having to constantly eat/drink milk. Personally I’ve found that if I go a long time (say, a month) without lactose, the first glass of normal milk that I drink, makes my stomach go a bit weird for a day, but then after that there’s no extra effect.

I have two friends who both belong into the 17% who are lactose-intolerant, and both of them can eat cheese, and one of them can also eat ice-cream without a problem.

Milk without lactose is perfectly digestable to cats (obligate carnivores), as are most cheeses. I would think that most cheeses and non-lactose milk would be just fine for Selkie, but unless it was known for sure that her system can handle lactose, Todd might want to avoid giving her regular milk.

It could also be kind of what you get with big cats.
Big Cats go from being able to handle milk to not being able to handle milk, but zookeepers often include dairy in the Big Cats’ diets as a treat, and to keep them able to digest it. This also keeps their minds a bit more kittenish, and helps them see zookeepers as ‘mommy’ rather than munchies.
As she’s not physically mature, she might still be able to digest. We don’t know, after all, if her species lactates or does something similar.

I grew up in Alaska living a subsistence lifestyle. We would catch and eat animals all the time, so I am desensitized to eating things that were once alive. I have a roommate on the other hand, he grew up in the city, who vomited after seeing the bone in a spiral cut ham.

If you some amazing real world culture shock over people catching and eating your own food, watch Through These Eyes. Its a documentary about what happened when schools tried to teach kids about the traditional life of the Netsilik Eskimos. It was produced by the National Film Board of Canada and is very educational.

Heh, many people who promote vegetarianism or veganism with the “Would you kill this (insert cute animal picture) with your bare hands for food?” argument usually get me saying “Well, get me one of those and a knife and I’ll show you.”

As long as it’s not outlawed, I’ll keep eating meat, fully knowing where it comes from and how it ends up on my plate. (Visiting a modern slaughterhouse as a schoolkid had me pointing out at different parts of animal bodies and telling my classmates what the parts did when the animal was alive. My classmates were mostly concentrating on not throwing up. Ah, the good old times. :-D)

It helped me that my dad grew up in Nebraska during the depression. Hunting was a major source for food on the table. A bullet or shotgun shell was MUCH cheaper than a steak. Catching your own fish was even cheaper! He taught me to hunt and fish as well.

Though I don’t fish and hunt these days (mostly due to not having much time), I definitely grew up knowing where “meat” comes from. But that’s just me. I find it rather sad that so many folks grow up not knowing where their food comes from. The stories of people not even knowing where milk comes from are rather sad to me. And yes, working at a university, I have actually met a few university level students who didn’t know where milk came from. Very few, but they do exist.

I never got why some people are squeamish about animals used for food. When my Vietnamese friend brought up the fact that Vietnamese pizza has pigs blood on it a bunch of people thought it was gross. On the other hand, the slow cooked prime rib steak I like is bathing in a pool of cow’s blood and it’s perfectly fine by western standards.

Not so much weird, just a product of their environments. ^^ As a lot of things are culturally based, it brings up a worry. In the real world, a child who is adopted and has no knowledge of their own culture is more prone to things like depression because they don’t feel like they belong anywhere. I can see how Selkie could have that problem abit more readily than most. But maybe that won’t be a problem in Selkieland! Loving this comic. <3

All I could think when you mentioned the “Oh God, my baby just killed” line was about my Dad’s old dog, Georgie Girl (seriously, I can’t make that name up). We were on a friend’s farm, and she was running around out back. Suddenly we heard this unholy squealing. She came back, covered in rabbit blood, happy as a clam.

My Mum and sister were horrified. Can’t recall my own reaction, though my Dad gave her a lot of pets and a fair number of “what a good girl” lines.